


The Spirit of an Airbender

by la_duanna



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Airbending, Gen, Hope, energybending, so much hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-02
Updated: 2013-02-02
Packaged: 2017-11-27 22:31:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/667200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/la_duanna/pseuds/la_duanna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's only one airbender left in the world. For now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Spirit of an Airbender

"What are you thinking about?"

With Momo's help, Katara found Aang perched on the windowsill in his old room in the Southern Air Temple. Once things had settled down in the Fire Nation capital, they had decided to bring some peace to what remained of the Air Nomads' temples. This was their first stop.

"It feels kind of useless, sometimes. I brought peace to the world, but I did it too late."

Sometimes Katara wondered if empathy was part and parcel of waterbending. She always knew what Aang was talking about, even if he couldn't quite explain himself all the time. "You're thinking about your people," she said, giving him the opportunity to confirm or deny her conclusion.

Aang nodded. "It's been a hundred years since the Air Nomads walked these grounds. And now what? Are we gonna fix it up so some refugees can move in? Look what happened at the Western Air Temple!" It still stung, she knew, that the Machinist had repurposed the sacred spaces. Katara suspected that Aang had forgiven the man for making weapons for the enemy more easily than he would the desecration of the temple.

His body language sang dejection: slumped shoulders, hunched back, hanging head. Katara crossed the spare room in a few steps to rest a hand on Aang's shoulder.

"I think," she said slowly, the idea still slippery in her head, "that things happened the way they had to. I think you had to get lost for a hundred years, maybe, so you could find me and Sokka, and Toph, and Zuko."

"That's fine," Aang's temper blazed up and he shrugged off her hand. "Except that I'm not the one paying for what I did. My people are gone, Katara. There's not gonna be any more airbenders after me. And that means in three more cycles, there's not gonna be any more avatar, either."

Katara stepped back, the hand that had been on Aang's shoulder going to her mouth. He was right. She hadn't even stopped to consider that -- the next avatar would be Water Tribe, then Earth Kingdom, then Fire Nation. And after that, without another airbender to continue the cycle, it would end.

"How is that 'the way things have to be?' It's not. You can't guarantee that there isn't going to be another war, or another warlord or something else that only the avatar can handle. You just can't."

At the outburst, Momo launched himself from the windowsill, chittering.

"So fix it," Katara said softly, the words gathering momentum as a new idea solidified. "Do what you did to the Fire Lord... except in reverse. Use your energy bending... and make some more airbenders."

Aang just gaped at her for a moment.

"I know who you could start with," she continued, afraid to stop and have him reject the idea. "You said yourself that he had the spirit of an airbender."

Aang blinked. "Teo."

"Teo." Her heart skipped a little with hope. "He'd be a great airbender. He already understands so much about flying. And he loves the temple. Respects the temple."

"Okay, sure. But then what? Me and Teo still aren't enough to start a whole nation."

"But it is a start," Katara countered. "And maybe that's your new quest. Our new quest. Bringing balance to the world, right? Well this world needs four nations to be balanced. The kids at the Western Air Temple are just a starting point."

A starting point is all hope really needs.


End file.
